MALLET FINGER: SYMPTOMS & TREATMENTS

Most patients will experience severe pain as well as these other symptoms:

• Swelling, Bruising
• Tenderness
• Inability to straighten your fingertip.
• Detached fingernail
• Redness under your fingernail bed

Mallet finger injuries are extremely painful. They are usually are caused by a large force, such as a sudden blow, catching a baseball, or a minor force, such as tucking in a bed sheet. A mallet finger injury can happen when something hard hits your extended finger or when there’s some type of trauma to your fingertip, like getting it caught or slammed in a door.

Generally, wearing a splint to keep your mallet ginger straight is the most common treatment.
* If you have not torn your tendon, but only stretched it, your injury should heal in 4 to 6 weeks if you wear your splint all the time.
* Ice can be applied to the injured area, if you don’t have any cuts or lacerations, cold treatments will help to bring down the swelling.
* Most mallet finger injuries can be treated non-surgically, but due to the severity of the injury, sometimes surgery is recommended.

Although surgery for mallet finger injury is rare, but in some cases,  if your joint is misaligned, your finger is fractured (broken) or there are bone fragments that cause an unstable joint, your injury would be considered “complex” and you may need surgery.

For this type of surgery, Dr. Pournaras will make a small incision to insert a pin or wire to keep your fingertip straight. This is an outpatient surgery – you do not stay overnight at the hospital and usually performed under local or regional anesthesia (with sedation if needed).